MUMBAI, Aug 14 (Reuters) - India's gold collection under exchange-traded funds rose by 23.6 percent on year to 6.197 tonnes in July, data from the funds showed. At 3:52 p.m., the benchmark gold fund (GBES.NS: Quote, Profile, Research) on the National Stock Exchange was 0.41 percent higher at 1,487.61 rupees per gram. "There have been addition to the subscription of gold ETF's, month wise," said Arvind Chari, fund manager, Quantum Mutual Fund, which offers a gold ETF. Gold ETFs -- instruments that can be traded like shares and are backed by physical gold holdings -- are more than two years old and the segment may get crowded with some other funds planning to enter. Though gold collections under ETFs are growing, they remain miniscule against India's imports of about 700 tonnes annually. The following table shows ETFs' gold holdings in metric tonnes and their value in billion rupees: FUNDS End July 2009 End July 2008 Gold *AUM Gold *AUM ============================================================= Benchmark (GBES.NS: Quote, Profile, Research) 2.239 3.26 1.861 2.35 UTI UTIGF.NS> 1.624 1.83 1.325 1.75 Kotak (KTGF.NS: Quote, Profile, Research) 0.349 0.51 0.341 0.44 Reliance (RELE.NS: Quote, Profile, Research) 1.192 1.78 1.442 1.87 Quantum (QTGF.NS: Quote, Profile, Research) 0.064 0.09 0.043 0.06 SBI GETS (SBIG.NS: Quote, Profile, Research) 0.729 1.11 N.A. N.A. =========================================================== 6.197 8.58 5.012 6.47 (Reporting by Siddesh Mayenkar; Editing by Ramya Venugopal)

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